Five Photos by Nate Lawrence

SURFING's photo team is ichiban number one on planet earth, but thousands of their images go unseen. This travesty shall not stand. We give you SURFING's Five Photos series.

Craig Anderson and I met on the Gold Coast during the Quiky Pro. We left the madness and drove down the coast to a nice little beach break and a cozy little motel. The sun was shinning through the motel door with this crazy light, so we shot a few portraits. Then Chas [Smith] walked in and told us he had a 6:00 a.m. flight the next morning out of New Castle. And the airport was two hours away. This was Craig’s face when Chas told us we’d have to wake up at 3:00 a.m.

Crystal clear water and closeout barrels. There are few things as fun as this — for the photographer at least. But actually on this day there were quite a few makeable ones. Cory Lopez caught the wave right after this one and got spit out.

Style is a big thing. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone surfing with bad style. That’s why shooting with Craig is so fun. This is a two-foot, sloppy wave — but how fun does he make it look?

Western Australia is the best. Long lines crash into rugged coast. A cool breeze blows offshore. Here Craig is contemplating our last day in West Oz. We ended up leaving this location to go to check another spot. After that we checked another spot. But then we left to check this other spot. And after that we ended up back here. Took a couple of swigs of wine and drove directly to Perth.

I’m not going to talk much about this session. I actually hate those boards. They don’t work good and everyone wants to get one to be cool. And have you ever tried to paddle on one? But my perspective kinda changed when I saw Craig ride one at this spot in Bali. If he were on his regular board he would have been doing cutbacks. But on this board, well, look how fun that actually looks.
—Words and photos by Nate Lawrence